But a few twists of fate – and a willingness to embrace new challenges – landed the couple permanently in Tasmania, with every step of their building journey documented on the new season of Grand Designs Australia.

“Paul was the biggest surprise of my life, I wasn’t looking because I’d really actually given up on men,’’ 58-year-old Wilton confesses.

“I did the Learn to Sail course and I ended up on Paul’s boat.’’

Love soon blossomed and they were happily living and working in Melbourne, while enjoying sailing trips together in their spare time.

And it was during a sailing trip to Tasmania – which was disrupted by poor weather – that they decided to do something life-changing.

“We got stranded after a yacht race here,’’ Wilton explains.

“The weather was too bad to sail back to Melbourne.’’

So they hired a car and went exploring. And when they spotted a 9ha block for sale at Chain of Lagoons – a beautiful stretch of coastal wilderness with panoramic views over the Tasman Sea – for $650,000 they “fell in love with it”.

They decided to buy the block and build a rammed earth, passive solar house on it, that they could live in as they eased out of working life and headed towards retirement.

But the remote location of the building site – with limited road access, no power and no water, meant this was not an easy feat.

Still, they forged ahead, with Bunn, 63, living in a caravan on site to oversee the building project, while Wilton continued to work in Melbourne but visited regularly.

We had toyed with the idea of doing something similar in Victoria,’’ Bunn explains.

But to do something like that (on the Mornington Peninsula) it would be eight times the cost, you just couldn’t do it.’’

But with a $650,000 block and a $1.3m building budget, they set about bringing their $2m Tassie project to life.

Having the process documented by a TV crew was not part of their original plan, but Wilton and Bunn say they are pleased they embraced the opportunity.

“I reckon we would honestly say it was a 10-out-of-10 experience,’’ Wilton says of being featured on Grand Designs Australia.

“It was sort of a bit of joke really, friends were joking with us when we were trotting out plans, our friends were saying ‘you should go on Grand Designs’.’’

She and Bunn laughed off the suggestion at first. But the more they thought about it, the more they realised it was a good idea, especially given their stunning yet remote location.

“It was a lot of fun, to be honest,’’ Wilton says of being part of filming.

“We knew we were going to have something special because we were choosing rammed earth and the design was really funky, I love mid-century design.’'

Filming was fortunately completed just months before the coronavirus pandemic began, but the downside of production delays during the pandemic means the episode is only just airing now.

“We’re impatient to see it,’’ Wilton confesses.

On the plus side, they’ve had plenty of time to settle into their home since filming wrapped up about two and a half years ago.

Since then they have not only settled into their house, and added an outdoor hot tub and some more landscaping, but they have also established a glamping business – Little Beach Co Glamping Retreat – on the same property.

“It’s absolutely amazing,’’ Wilton says.

“We finish up at the glamping site and we walk home 300m down to our house and walk into this beautiful home. At this time of year it’s often a bit darker and the moon’s across the water, and we turn on the lights in this beautiful home which is so comfortable, but still so luxurious.’’

“The pool is heated and we swim in the pool before work in the morning, and we’ve got a light little gym set up for stretches and exercise.

“We don’t actually tell our guests that we’re on Grand Designs … but we do let them sneak down and look at the house. We just love it and we’re so proud of what we’ve built.’’

While Wilton commuted between Melbourne and Chain of Lagoons initially, the coronavirus pandemic quickly put a stop to that and she’s thrilled that she chose Tasmania as her permanent base.

“Covid came and I could no longer commute, I had to make a decision between Melbourne or Chain of Lagoons,’’ she explains.

“I chose to stay in Tassie so I got Hire A Hubby in (to her Melbourne office), they sent all the workstations to the tip and we got packers in who packed the office up.

“I live in Tasmania full-time. I just loved it so much, I wanted to stop travelling.’’

Wilton and Bunn had only been together for about three years when they embarked on the ambitious building project, which many believed would make or break such a new relationship. But Wilton says they are more in love now than ever.

“Now, when I think about Paul and I, I think we have enormous resilience,’’ she says.

“We lived through three winters in the caravan, we had to carry our own water, we didn’t have hot water, Paul made a makeshift shower and we had a drop toilet.

“Not many couples could do that and still be madly in love at the end of it.’’

They had planned to get married at the property once the house was finished and filming ended but had to cancel the wedding at the last minute due to the start of the pandemic.

They are hoping to reschedule the nuptials for later this year, once building work on four studio apartments is completed as part of the glamping business. The apartments will provide additional accommodation to the eight bell tents that are currently onsite.

Wilton and Bunn say they love running the business, meeting guests and sharing their perfect patch of Tassie with others.

They have quickly adapted to the remote location of their home, which is a far cry from their previous surroundings in Melbourne’s South Yarra.

Launceston is two hours away, so it’s quite a trek if they need something from Bunnings or a major supermarket.

The closest towns of St Marys and Scamander are both about 20 minutes away from Chain of Lagoons, so even running out of basics like milk and bread requires a decent drive to the nearest IGA.

Several Tasmanian homes have featured on Grand Designs Australia over the past 12 years, with properties at Battery Point, Dynnyrne, Bruny Island, Lewisham, Turners Beach and the Tamar Valley among those showcased.

But host Peter Maddison, who is also an architect, says the Chain of Lagoons property was certainly one of the more remote builds that has featured on the show, and he was impressed by the way the home’s design responded beautifully to the surrounding landscape.

“Tasmania throws up these amazing landscapes and good houses respond to that,’’ Maddison says.

“This one works really well, in connecting to the landscape.’’

He says Wilton and Bunn’s choice of rammed-earth walls related nicely to the colouration of the surrounding beach and rocky shoreline. “It really grounds itself well into that,’’ Maddison says.

“Not everyone would pick up on that (when designing a house), but I think that’s a terrific effort.

“Design is very style-driven in some places, but in Tasmania it’s more environmentally-driven and housing design is generally more environmentally aware.’’

He says with architecture based on modernist ideas, with a flat roof and lots of glass to capture the view, the design was “not too over the top” and was “kind of restrained” providing a comfortable and luxurious home while not detracting from the spectacular landscape surrounding it.

He says building – and filming – at the site did pose some challenges, but it was worth the extra effort.

“It’s very remote down there and pretty raw,’’ he says.

“Access wasn’t great. It’s a long way from anywhere – you can’t go to the local Bunnings hardware store and buy a bag of nails, because it just doesn’t exist.

“It does pose more challenges logistically and you have to have a higher level of organisation.’’

Maddison says Tasmania is an “affordable place to do something amazing’’, particularly when comparing Tassie real estate prices to other states. So he’s not surprised that more and more people are leaving bigger cities like Melbourne and Sydney behind to trade cramped inner-city apartments for sprawling homes surrounded by nature.

Wilton and Bunn couldn’t agree more.

They feel fortunate that they met and that they discovered such a special piece of land in Tasmania, as prior to meeting neither of them imagined ending up here. But they are certainly glad with the way things turned out.

“Yes, there was some luck involved,’’ Bunn says.

“But you’ve also got to make you own luck, to a degree.

“When an opportunity presents itself, some people walk past it, and some people pick it up.

“And I think that’s what we’ve done here. We’ve picked it up and jumped at the opportunity.

“And it has just totally changed our lives.’’ •

Season 10 of Grand Designs Australia is now showing on Foxtel’s LifeStyle channel on Thursdays at 7.30pm and On Demand.

The Chain of Lagoons house features in episode five, on Thursday June 3.